AI vocal biomarker company will use funding to
accelerate its commercial growth, expand its platform into new
health conditions, and enter new geographies
PureTech Health plc (Nasdaq: PRTC, LSE: PRTC) (“PureTech” or the
“Company”), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company, noted today
that its Founded Entity, Sonde Health, a health technology company
committed to bringing accessible health monitoring to everyone,
announced it has raised a $19.25 million Series B investment round
with a strong group of financial and strategic investors.
Sonde has the largest and most diverse health-labeled voice
dataset with over 1.2 million voice samples from over 85,000
subjects on 4 continents. Sonde uses advanced audio signal
processing, speech science and AI/machine learning to sense and
analyze subtle vocal changes due to changes in a person’s
physiology to provide key insights into health and well-being.
The Sonde platform has applications in a range of indications
including asthma, COPD, depression, anxiety mild cognitive
impairment, and general health.
Sonde has raised $35.25 million in total.
The full text of the announcement from Sonde is below:
Sonde Health Raises $19.25 Million Series B
to Build the Next Generation of Voice-Based Health
Monitoring
AI vocal biomarker company will use funding to
accelerate its commercial growth, expand its platform into new
health conditions, and enter new geographies
BOSTON – Dec. 8, 2022 – Sonde Health, a health technology
company committed to bringing accessible health monitoring to
everyone, has raised a $19.25 million Series B investment round led
by Partners Investment, with participation from NEOM Company, KT
Corporation, and existing investors, including co-founder PureTech
Health and M Ventures. The company has raised $35.25 million in
total and will use the funding to drive its global commercial
growth, deepen its respiratory and mental health monitoring
technologies, and build capabilities for additional health
conditions.
"Digital biomarkers are becoming a mainstay in healthcare.
Today's healthcare companies are realizing how vocal biomarkers can
engage people earlier in their health. The data and insights found
in voice can power health monitoring and patient stratification so
issues can become apparent well before a costly medical event
occurs," said David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health. "With voice and any
listening device, accessible and effective health monitoring can be
made available to the majority of the world."
Sonde has the largest and most diverse health-labeled voice
dataset with over 1.2 million voice samples from over 85,000
subjects on 4 continents. Sonde is the only vocal biomarker company
to offer AI/machine learning-based monitoring products for multiple
health conditions and to have developed the ability to embed its
technology into device chipsets for passive and safe health
monitoring through voice.
Today, Sonde provides its enterprise vocal biomarker technology
to companies across several health verticals, including telehealth,
pharmaceutical, remote patient monitoring, and consumer/medical
devices. Sonde licenses its platform to customers globally in two
ways:
- Health Checks
- Respiratory Fitness: Sonde’s
platform can detect and monitor respiratory health conditions, like
asthma, from 6 seconds of voice. Patients are engaging with Sonde’s
respiratory fitness health checks 2+ times per week.
- Mental Fitness: Sonde’s platform
can detect and monitor evidence of depression and anxiety from 30
seconds of voice. Patients are engaging with Sonde’s mental fitness
health checks 3+ times per week.
- Vocal Biomarker Development
- MCI, COPD, General Health: Sonde
is developing novel vocal biomarkers using its proprietary
“research-build-validation” methodology with clinical
partners.
Partners Investment Vice President Joonsoo Kim will join Sonde’s
board of directors. "Sonde is at the forefront of a vocal biomarker
revolution that has the potential to change how we detect, manage,
and understand our health. They have the deepest, high-quality
dataset combined with leading edge-processing technology, which
gives them a significant competitive advantage," he said. "We
believe Sonde's team and platform are primed to disrupt and add
tremendous value to health monitoring around the world, and we're
thrilled to support the company's mission to harness the power of
voice for better health.”
Sonde’s fundraise follows a stream of new and expanded
commercial partnerships to accelerate development and adoption of
vocal biomarkers worldwide. KT Corporation, one of the world’s
leading telecom companies, announced recently that it will be
working commercially with Sonde to advance its voice-based
businesses, including its call centers and AI voice assistants for
health monitoring. It will also deploy Sonde’s technology for
applications in digital therapeutics and telemedicine in Asia.
GN Group will integrate Sonde’s Mental Fitness vocal biomarker
into its hearing products. The company is already working with
Sonde to develop an MCI vocal biomarker. Qualcomm, which has
already integrated Sonde’s vocal biomarkers into its mobile device
chipsets, has extended the relationship to include its wearable
chipsets. Koye Pharmaceuticals, which had already engaged Sonde to
develop a COPD vocal biomarker, has expanded the partnership to
develop a novel mental health vocal biomarker for deployment in
India.
For companies and organizations interested in partnering with
Sonde, please visit sondehealth.com/contact.
About Sonde Health
Sonde is a leader in voice-based health monitoring. Sonde serves
top health companies, providers, pharma, and device OEMs through
its vocal biomarker platform. Leveraging a best-in-class voice data
set with over 1.2 million samples from 85,000+ individuals on 4
continents, Sonde uses advanced audio signal processing, speech
science, and AI/machine learning to sense and analyze subtle vocal
changes due to changes in a person’s physiology to provide key
insights into health and well-being.
www.sondehealth.com
About Partners Investment
Partners Investment is a Seoul-based venture capital firm
founded in 2000 investing in breakthrough technologies in
healthcare and therapeutics in Korea, North America, Europe, and
China. Partners Investment was built upon the belief that the
demand for improved health will always be paramount and that
investing in healthcare innovations will benefit patients with
unmet medical needs.
www.partnersi.co.kr/eng/
About PureTech Health
PureTech is a biotherapeutics company dedicated to changing the
treatment paradigm for devastating diseases. The Company has
created a broad and deep pipeline through the expertise of its
experienced research and development team and its extensive network
of scientists, clinicians and industry leaders. This pipeline,
which is being advanced both internally and through PureTech's
Founded Entities, is comprised of 28 therapeutics and therapeutic
candidates, including two (Plenity® and EndeavorRx®) that have
received both U.S. FDA clearance and European marketing
authorization and a third (KarXT) that will soon be filed for FDA
approval, as of the most recent update by the Company. All of the
underlying programs and platforms that resulted in this pipeline of
therapeutic candidates were initially identified or discovered and
then advanced by the PureTech team through key validation points
based on unique insights in immunology and drug development.
For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect
with us on Twitter @puretechh.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not
relate to matters of historical fact should be considered
forward-looking statements, including without limitation those
related to Sonde’s use of the funding to drive its global
commercial growth, deepen its respiratory and mental health
monitoring technologies, and build capabilities for additional
health conditions, and Sonde’s future prospects, development plans,
and strategies. The forward-looking statements are based on current
expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual
results, performance and achievements to differ materially from
current expectations, including, but not limited to, those risks,
uncertainties and other important factors described under the
caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the
year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the SEC and in our other
regulatory filings. These forward-looking statements are based on
assumptions regarding the present and future business strategies of
the Company and the environment in which it will operate in the
future. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date
of this press release. Except as required by law and regulatory
requirements, we disclaim any obligation to update or revise these
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221209005070/en/
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